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Kuwait forms cabinet with new oil, finance ministers

NorthStar Realty Finance Announces Pricing of Public Offering of Common Stock

Former central bank governor, Sheikh Salem Abdulaziz Al-Sabah, who resigned last year in protest over a huge expansion in public spending, was appointed finance minister. In his resignation letter in February last year, Sheikh Salem complained that public spending had increased to unprecedented and unsustainable high levels, risking fiscal and monetary stability. Between 2006 and 2012, Kuwait spending has tripled to over $70 billion with the overwhelming majority going to support salary increases and public subsidies. The outgoing finance minister Mustafa al-Shamali was named oil minister, a post he had held on a caretaker basis since May following the resignation of Hani Hussein.

The offering is expected to close on August 9, 2013. Deutsche Bank Securities, UBS Investment Bank and J.P. Morgan are acting as the joint book-running managers of the offering and FBR and JMP Securities are acting as the co-managers of the offering. The Company intends to use the net proceeds of the offering to make investments relating to its business, to repurchase or pay its liabilities and for general corporate purposes. A registration statement relating to the offered securities has been declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”).

The $950 million initiative known as Initiative 22, would raise money for Colorado education through a change in the state’s income tax structure. If the measure makes it onto the ballot and if voters approve, it would take the state’s flat income tax of 4.63 percent and change it into a two-tiered system. The rate would increase to 5 percent for the first $75,000 of taxable income and increase to 5.9 percent for earnings above $75,000, regardless of whether filed single or jointly. The money raised would pay for primarily five things: Incentives for effective teachers More funding for at-risk students $100M “innovation fund” grants that schools and districts can compete for A report by 9News points out that the funds would pay for an increase in school funding by 1/3 and that it would be a bigger tax hike that Proposition 103 , which was soundly rejected by voters in 2011.